New Biology Research to Run on Space Station

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The International Space Station is about to take one giant leap for
biological science in orbit.

Three new biomedical experiments funded by the U.S. National
Institutes of Health will take advantage of the space station's
unique orbital facilities and weightless environment, NASA officials
said. The experiments will use the station as a lab to study how
bones and the immune system weaken
in space.

The program falls in line with the space station's designation as a
U.S. National Laboratory for scientists from academia, the private
sector and various government agencies. But it includes an important
first, officials said.

"This is the first research sponsored by a government agency
that's a non-traditional partner of NASA," said Marybeth Edeen,
manager of the space station's National Laboratory Office at NASA's
Johnson Space Center in Houston. "We expect things to keep
building from here."

The $100 billion space
station has been under construction since 1998
and is nearly complete. Some 15 countries and space agencies from the
United States, Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan are building the
outpost.

In 2005, Congress designated the U.S. portion of the space station as
a national
laboratory, freeing it for use by other federal
agencies and researchers from universities and the private sector.
The move could open up many new lines of research to scientists in
these spheres.

"Cells behave differently in microgravity," Edeen told
SPACE.com. "You can see things in microgravity that you cannot
see on the ground."

In the past five years, a few experiments not run by NASA have taken
advantage of such perks. In 2008, for example, researchers from a
Texas company began an experiment on the ISS. Their project aimed to
develop a vaccine
against salmonella by taking advantage of the
effects of null gravity on bacterial virulence.

Other companies, such as the California-based NanoRacks LLC, are
developing equipment aboard the ISS to make it easier for scientists
to do experiments there.

But the NIH grants represent a big step toward opening up the space
station to research sponsored by other federal agencies. The new
experiments will be paid for and directed by NIH, with NASA helping
out with logistics.

"It's NIH's technical review, their decision on the science,"
Edeen said. "We work with them to make sure what they want to do
is feasible."

Bone loss and immune systems

NIH officials plan to make
two more rounds of grant awards through the BioMed-ISS program, NIH
officials said. NASA has similar research agreements with the
Departments of Defense, Agriculture and Energy, as well as the
National Science Foundation.

But first, the health agency is looking forward to the new space
station experiments. Here's a look at the three projects funded by
the new grants:

Bone-loss: This study, led by researcher Paola Divieti of
Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, will take
a close look at how spaceflight affects osteocytes, a common type of
bone cell, which are thought to have gravity-sensing abilities.
Studying them in a weightless environment may help target new
therapies for osteoporosis and related bone diseases.

Immune-system: This experiment is headed by former astronaut
Millie Hughes-Fulford of the Northern California Institute for
Research and Education. The immune systems of astronauts are
suppressed while in space, much like the reduction in the immune
response that occurs in the elderly, putting both groups at increased
risk of infections. This study aims to apply lessons from past
research into immune cells in weightlessness to a new model for the
decreased immune response in the elderly.

Toxin-migration:
The movement of toxins from intestines to other organs in the body is
a major source of illness in the United States, NASA officials said.
A major factor in disease stems from the ability of toxins to
compromise the natural barrier function of cells in the
gastrointestinal tract. Using 3-D cell culture models grown in
weightlessness, researcher Declan McCole of the University of
California-San Diego plans to generate insights regarding the barrier
properties of the intestines and explore how the absence of gravity
affects a toxin's ability to diminish this barrier.

The NIH-funded experiments will be conducted in two stages.

The first is a ground-based preparatory phase to allow investigators
to meet select milestones and technical requirements. The second, the
actual experimental phase, will take place on the space station. This
phase will include preparing the experiments for launch, working with
astronauts to conduct them in orbit and performing subsequent data
analyses on Earth.